Collapsible ski



Oct. 21, 19 1. J. T. RYDBE'RG 2,260,057

COLLAPSIBLE SKI Filed May 13, 1939 j] 7-. a I

I'll

hip ATTORNEY.

Patented Oct. 21, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COLLAPSIBLE SKI JohnT. Rydberg, Harrison, N. J. 7 Application May 13, 1939, SerialNo.273,386

7 Claims.

This invention relates to snow shoes or skis, and especially to devicesof this kind which may be folded in order to facilitate their shippingand carrying.

The prime object of this invention is to provide snow shoes or skisconsisting of at least two interconnected, foldable or collapsible partsand means whereby these parts may be brought into usable or operativeposition, in which'position they may be kept until it is desired to foldor collapse them to reduce their length dimensions for facilitatingtheir being handled, when not in use.

Another object of this invention is to provide collapsible skisconsisting of front and rear members connected by aligned, double-pin orlinked hinges which are inobtrusively secured to and which are flushedwith the bottom face of the members, and wherein to one of the membersis fixedly attached a foot supporting element, extending over the hingearea of the members and a portion of the second member, and which footsupporting element is so constructed and arranged as to automaticallysnap into engagement with said second member, and to hold the twomembers in aligned, operative or usable position, when desired, andwhich element is adapted to release the second member when the ski is tobe collapsed or folded.

A further object of this invention is to provide in conjunction with thefoot supporting element a suitable instrumentality for accommodating thefront portion of a shoe, in such a way that the person using the ski maypivot his toe portion in relation to the foot support.

The foregoing and still further objects and important advantages of thepresent invention will become more fully apparent from the ensuingdescription of the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. l is a sideelevation of a ski in its operative position, in accordance with myinvention.

Fig, 2 is a fragmental plan view of the hinge area of my device.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation thereof, with portions of the foot supportbroken away.

Fig. 4 is the bottom view of my hinge construction connecting the frontand rear members of my ski.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the middle area of my collapsible ski,showing 'the portion of one member in horizontalposition, while aportion of the other member is shown partly folded against the firstmember.

mitting the two members shoe fastening straps.

Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view taken on lines 6-6 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 7 is a cross section through a modified form of my ski.

Fig. 8 is a detail view of one for-moi a looking arrangement by means ofwhich the two ski members are held in alignment.

Fig. 9 is a cross sectional view taken on lines 99 of Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is another type of a locking provision for the foot supportingelement, and

Fig. 11 is a cross sectional view taken on lines II-II of Fig. 10.

Referring now more specifically to the drawing, numeral Ill denotes thefront member of my ski, while numeral II indicates the rear memberthereof. These two members are preferably provided with a longitudinalguide groove I2, which may be readily observed from Figs. 4 and 5, andwhich groove is aligned in both members when the ski is in use. Themembers are united by a pair of double-pin hinges I3, which are flushwith the bottom faces of the members, and which are separated by grooveI2. These double-pin hinges are connected with one another by means oflinks I4, which may be clearly noted in Fig. 4. These links and thedouble pins are designed for the purpose of perto be collapsed withtheir running or bottom faces against one another, in the mannerindicated in broken lines in Fig. 1, and in full lines in Fig. 5.

Permanently secured to front member I0 is a substantially channel-shapedfoot supporting element I5, which extendsover the hinge area between thetwo members as well as over the adjacent portion of member I I. Thisfoot supporting element is provided at the heel rest end withprojections, prongs or similar surface roughening means I6, forpreventing slippage, while at the front end of the member there issecured a shoe support consisting of a channel shaped bridge or toeplate I I, passing through the side flanges of element I5, and restingon top of front member II).

This cross member possesses upturned sides I8, provided with aperturesI9, for accommodating To the interior face of sides I8 are hingedlysecured at 20 shoe tip engaging elements 2I, which facilitate theswinging of the shoe in an arc, whereby the user of the skis is enabledto bend his knees and Stand at the tips of his feet, when completing ajump. Extending from sides I8 are headed pins 22 to which is secured aresilient strap'23, shown in Fig. I, intended for urging the shoe tipinto proper engagement with elements 2|.

At the free end of foot supporting element l5 there are provided in itsresilient flanges outwardly directed sockets 24 or similar equivalentmeans, which are adapted to snap over corresponding heads or pinssecured in rearv member II. The simplest construction of such lockingmeans is illustrated in Fig. 6, wherein the socket 24 is shown to engagethe head of screw 25, extending from the side surface of member I Theside flanges of foot supporting element iii are made suflicientlyresilient to automatically snap over and engage the head of screws 25,thereby keeping the ski members in their operative position.

A modified form of the locking arrangement between element l5 and memberII is shown in Figs. 8 and 9, wherein instead of the head of a screw, apin 26 is provided which is supported by a spring 21 for normally urgingpin 26 into engagement with socket 24 of element l5. Pin 26 projectsfrom both faces of spring 21, and is adapted to be held in position byrecess 28 of a plate 28' mounted in member ll.

Another modification of my locking arrangement between member I I andfoot supporting element I5 is illustrated in Figs. and 11, wherein againa pin 29 is illustrated which is .mounted on spring 30, which latterurges pin 29 outwards and into socket 24 of element l5. For releasingeither pins 26 or 21, shown, respectively, in Figs. 9 and 11, therespective springs 21 and 30 may be depressed. It ist'o be noted that inthe construction shown in Figs. 10. and 11, there is provided a recess3| for permitting the operation of spring 30.

In Fig. '7 I have illustrated a cross section of a ski constructionwherein the body of the ski, instead of being solid, is made of hollowmaterial. In this figure member II" is equipped with a through-pin 32ending into heads which are adapted to engage outwardly directedrecesses 24' provided in element l5. This figure represents a crosssection somewhat similar to that taken on lines 6-6 of Fig. 3.

One of the important features of the present invention is theconstruction of the hinge connection. which consists of at least twoaligned link-hinges, arranged alongside each other and spaced by guidegroove l2. These hinges are imbedded in the material of the two skimembers, and are flush with their bottom surfaces. It is important thatthe hinges be entirely smooth to avoid danger to the user of the skis.

Another important feature of the present invention is the constructionof channel-shaped foot support and especially the cooperating lockinginstrumentalities described in connection with Figs. 6, '7, 8 and 10,which are designed to automatically interlock with one another when thetwo ski members. are brought into aligned position, ready for use. Theselocking instrumentalities must be so constructed as to avoid theformation of deep pockets, wherein snow or ice may gather and renderthem inoperative, or

difiicult to manipulate, especially during freez ing weather. For thisreason I make the necessary recesses for accommodating such devices asshallow as possible.

When the ski of my construction is to be folded up in the mannerindicated in Fig. l, the only thing necessary is to place its hingeportion over the knee and press down one of the members,

which operation will automatically cause the disengagement of thelocking instrumentalities of foot support l5 from the correspondinginstrumentalities provided in rear ski member II.

It is to be noted that hinges l3 terminate in rounded ends 33, which areimbedded in corresponding semi-circular recesses, preferably made by acircular cutting tool into the bottoms of the two ski members. Thisconstruction of the hinge ends and their recesses have their owntechnical significance. It is well known that when wood is cut at rightangles to its grain, it will have a tendency of breaking out along thecut, and may cause splitting of the wood. A circular recess successfullyprevents that.

It will be also noted that toe plate [1 actually consists of two halveswhich abut with one another along dotted lines 34, clearly seen inFigures 2 and 5, since it would be difficult to pass a onepiece stripthrough the side openings made for the cross member in channel elementl5 and then bend its ends to conform with the shape indicated.

While I have shown specific constructions of my foldable or collapsibleski, it is quite obvious that improvements and changes may beincorporated therein, and I therefore reserve for myself the right tomake such changes and improvements without departing from the broadscope of my invention, as expressed in the annexed claims.

I claim: v

1. In a collapsible snow shoe construction, such as a ski,- front andrear members, a. pair of spaced and aligned double-pin hinges secured atbottom of and operatively connecting said members, a.

one member, and cooperating with and adapted to engage,.embrace, overlapand interlock with the other member, and locking means provided at thesides of said other member and at the flan es of said element forsustaining the mem bers in continuous position relative to one another.

2. In a collapsible ski, front and rear members adapted to form alignedcontinuations of one another when used, each member having alongitudinal guide groove at its bottom face, the groove of one memberadapted to form an aligned continuation of the groove of the othermember, a pair of double-pin hinges secured flush with and attached tothe under surface of the members at both sides of the guide groove, afoot support, having a flat upper web portion and resilient sideflanges, fixedly secured to one of the members and extending beyond thehinges of that member and adapted to overlay, embrace and interlock withthe other member, and cooperating locking means provided with thesupport and said other member for holding the members in alignmentduring use.

3. In a collapsible ski, as set forth in claim 2, said foot supportcomprising a substantially channel-shaped structure adapted to engagethe sides of both members in the vicinity of their hinged connection,said locking means comprising socket formations at the sides of thesupport and corresponding projections extending from said other memberand adapted to snap into engagement with said socket formations.

4. In a collapsible ski, as set forth in claim 2, said foot supportcomprising a substantially channel-shaped structure adapted to engagethe sides of both members in the vicinity of their hinged connection,and a foot-accommodating instrumentality secured to the front portion ofthe foot support, said instrumentality having a pair of hinged membersfor the retention of the tip of a shoe.

5. In a collapsible ski, as set forth in claim 2, said foot supportcomprising a substantially channel-shaped structure adapted to engagethe sides of both members in the vicinity of their hinged connection,and a foot-accommodating instrumentality, secured to the front portionof the foot support, for operatively retaining the tip of a shoe, saidinstrumentality comprising a toe plate having means for accommodatingattaching straps, a pair of cooperating shoe-engaging members hingedlyassociated with said toe plate, and means at the exterior of the toeplate for removably securing thereto a foot holding element.

6. In a collapsible ski, as set forth in claim 2, said foot supportcomprising a substantially channel-shaped structure adapted to engagethe sides of both members in the vicinity of their hinged connection,and a foot-accommodating instrumentality, secured to the front portionof the foot support, for operatively retaining the tip of a shoe, saidinstrumentality comprising a toe plate having means for accommodatingattaching straps, a pair of cooperating shoe-engaging members hingedlyassociated with said toe plate, and means at the exterior of the toeplate for removably securing thereto a foot holding element, and anadjustable foot holding element secured to said means.

7. In a ski consisting of front and rear members. a hinge connectionoperatively uniting the members to permit them to become either alignedor to be folded with their bottom faces against one another, andsubstantially channel-shaped means fixedly associated substantiallyhalf-way with one member and having a free extension, the latter beingadapted to engage, embrace and to overlap the other member, for keepingthe members aligned longitudinally when in use, said means and saidother member being provided with sidewisely arranged, cooperatinglocking instrumentalities for automatically interengaging with oneanother when said members are brought to their aligned, operativeposition.

J OHN T. RYDBERG.

